Climate Change Today @maeolshansky - Tumblr Blog

We can build on the savings inadvertently made to our carbon impact over the last few weeks. We have one shared planet. There is simply no option to self-isolate from climate change. Individuals, companies and countries can make a difference. To limit global warming, we all need to work together.

This article was written by Mike Hughes on May 18 2020 for Forbes, It talks about how we can make change in post Coronavirus life. Governments around the world have shown that they are able to put people first to keep them safe. Scientist say that if they can make such major change so quickly we should be able to do the same with climate change. Scientist also think we should take the momentum of lower CO2 levels during this pandemic and try to implement that into post Covid-19 life. They think that we can level out the enviromental scales. This article gives three changes we need to focus on; the first being “Accelerate speed of renewable energy growth”, the second being “Maintain reductions in energy consumption were possible”, and the third being “Estimate energy waste”. If we can change for the better and do these three things we have a chance of really leveling the environmental scales.

An analysis of satellite imagery from the past four decades suggests that global warming has increased the chances of storms reaching Category 3 or higher.

This article written by Henry Fountain for the New York Times on May 18, 2020, talks about how hurricanes are going to continue to get more violent as climate change persists. Every decade the chances of having a huricane being a Category 3 or higher with winds greater then 110 mph will go up 8 percent. Dr. Kossin said that in the short term its not going to change the landscape but in long term the landscape could change in a “bad way, not in a good way”. Global warming will not only cause a lot of physical damage but also economical damage. Major storms have cause countries to lose tens of billions of dollars to damage repairs. As the world gets warmer, we will see more hurricane and other tropical storms to get much stronger as the worlds waters get warmer.

#kossin #james p

From the Times’s Climate Desk’s series that addresses big climate questions: “The only real debates are over how fast and how far the climate will change, and what society should do.”

This article written by the New York Times gives a crash course on 7 topics regarding climate change. I wanted to write about on one of them #4. How do we stop fossil fuel emissions? Written by Brad Plumer. He starts by saying that if we want to help the planet that we are going to need to clean up “every coal plant in China, every steel mill in Europe, every car and truck on American highways.”. As I was reading this My immediate thought was that this is impossible and It would be really hard to convince world leaders to do this. But then I kept reading a came across that some countries and states have already started. France has cleaned up its grid with nuclear power, California is planning on enforcing zero-emissions electricity by 2045 by installing solar panels and wind turbines. Some companies plan to put carbon dioxide from coal plants and bury it underground. These are great strides in lowering emissions. Unfortunately we still have things in todays life that cant be “decarbonized”, the batteries that would be used are too heavy for airplanes and long-haul trucks. One quarter of emissions fall into the “difficult to decarbonize” category. As we further our technological advances I hope that the whole world could follow Californias lead and try to get to zero emissions by a certain point.

We can do a lot, including planning for a green career.

This was written by NASA for their Climate Kids page. Even though this page is directed at elementary to early middle school aged students it still gives helpful tips we could implement in our everyday lives. It gives the easy idea of instead of driving everywhere walk or ride your bike, it even gives the statistic of every 2 miles in a car produces 2 pounds of CO2 going into the atmosphere. It gives other examples of using “Swap old incandescent light bulbs for the new compact fluorescent lights. They use only 25% as much electricity to give the same light. They last ten times longer.” and to do something as simple as using reusable water bottles.

Reducing waste & creating plastic sustainability through products, performance, and partners.

This article put out by Berry Global gives a lot of ways how there are slowing down climate change. I believe that if we implement what they are doing in everyday activities we can greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They propose an idea to plastic wrap food to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the article it states “the United States throws away 40% of the meat, poultry, and seafood purchased every year. How the plastics industry works to fix meat spoilage: vacuum-sealed plastic packaging prevents meat oxidation, doubling the shelf life.” Now my issue with this idea even though it is partially solved is what to do with all the excess plastic this will produce. We know that plastic in general is not a good thing for the environment. I propose an idea to somehow create a recyclable plastic wrap. This article gives other really good ideas but I believe there are still some problems to be solved.

This article written by Laura Millan Lombrana and Hayley Warren on May 7, 2020 for Bloomberg Green talks about how quickly coronavirus has impacted climate change. A couple things stood out to me in this article, the first was a statistic that said “ 2.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, about 8% of the estimated total for the year, will never be emitted into the atmosphere”. Before the virus aviation accounted for 2% of the worlds CO2 emissions.The article says that from Feb. 1-March 19 10 million metric tons less CO2 emitted from aviation. This is an amazing first step in cutting down our CO2 emissions. The other part to this was that it all happened so fast, it didn't take years or months, but a mere 2 weeks to have clear skies as some people in India posting that they can see the Himalayas. You can look at any world event in the 20th and 21st century and none of them have shown such a decrease in CO2 emissions.

This was drawn by Mike Luckovich published on March 22, 2020. As seen in the drawing it is was appears to be the Grim Reaper but named Climate Change. When the man opens the door he just assumes it was Coronavirus that made him croak. But it turns out it was actually climate change. With this global pandemic going on it seems that climate change has taken a back seat to the worlds problems. As this is an easy thing to understand in the long run if we don’t fix the climate it wont matter how we handle Covid-19. We know that the virus is a respiratory virus. If we keep going on the path we are on the air quality will be so bad that people that were never infected will have a very hard time breathing.

This drawing was published by the New Yorker On September 19th, 2014 And was drawn by Benjamin Schwartz. The main part of this drawing that stood out to me was alien holding a sign that says “A clean Earth is an Earth worth invading”. This stood out to me because in our culture we have made a lot of films about aliens invading Earth, and now we have an art piece that says that even aliens don’t want our dying earth. The second part that stood out to me was the schoolboy right behind the alien that has a sign that says “Children are the future”. We have seen this a it lately of young people, middle school to high school age, fighting for a brighter future. Overall Schwartz is sending great Message that we need to change how we are living for the sake of the planet.

The Climate Action Reserve ensures integrity, transparency and financial value in the North American carbon market.

This article shows the political cartoons drawn by David Horsey. All of his drawing try to show how the government treats climate change. One of the drawings shows a meteorologist in front of her screen with what appears to to be President Trumps face as a hurricane saying “CLIMATE CHANGE IS A HOAX!”. As we have learned throughout his presidency he likes to use the word hoax a lot, in regards to climate change and as of late coronavirus. I think that political cartoons re a great way to connect to people with different types of news.

By 2070, up to 3 billion people are likely to live in climate conditions that are "warmer than conditions deemed suitable for human life to flourish."

This article written by USAToday says that temperatures are going to be too high for human life to flourish. It’s states that the climate we are projected to have is currently inhabited by only .8% of the world, in 2070 will harm 19% of the Earths population. If temperatures rise to what scientist project it to, it will make something like surfing a pandemic almost impossible. In the article it says “Our computations show that each degree warming (Celsius) above present levels corresponds to roughly 1 billion people falling outside of the climate niche,". The niche climate for humans is 52-59 degrees Fahrenheit. Overall this article has a lot of information in it and talks about how people can help bend the rapidly rising curve. The main idea it had was to lower CO2 emissions; using less fossile rules, alternate ways of transportation, etc. If we can combat climate change we can buy ourselves more time.

Significant and long-lasting change in the Earth’s climate and weather patterns

Merriam-Webster dictionary

Above is the definition that the Merriam-Webster dictionary gives for climate change. When I think of climate change I think of more then just change in weather patterns. I think of glaciers melting, sea levels rising, animals homes being taken from them do to numerous natural disasters. What should be included in the definition is that most of what is happening to the Earth’s climate is man made. We have been hurting the Earth for too long and now we are paying for it with rising temperatures and more frequent natural disasters. Now a days it would be weird to go through a summer with no hurricanes in the keys or tornados in the south.

The affects of climate change are catastrophic to the animal kingdom. With rising sea temperatures arctic ice melting very quickly and causing sea levels to rise at a rapid pace. Both of these are disrupting the harmony of the arctic animal kingdom. Animals are moving and leaving the area which causes other animals to have no food supply.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Climate Change Today